Review: Porsche 911 Adds Sensational Gearbox (iPod Adapter, Too)

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The Porsche 911 entered the 21st Century this fall. The 2009 model offers an iPod adapter, Bluetooth adapter, navigation, ventilated seats, and cupholders to keep driver and passenger entertained along the way. More importantly, Porsche finally brings to passenger cars the double-shift gearbox called PDK that it used in race cars a quarter-century ago. All this keeps the 45-year-old Porsche 911 at the pinnacle of performance and finally matches the electronics amenities of, say, a Ford Focus. And unlike those who roll up to a fancy nightspot in a Focus, you’ll get preferred valet parking. “We have finally joined the real world,” says Porsche’s PR maven, Bernd Harling.Porsche 911 Carrera Slideshow: Click HerePCM 3.0 pioneers touchscreens for German automakers
Porsche offered cockpit gadgetry before, such as navigation, but the offerings weren’t very broad or memorable. The Porsche Communications Manager interface that controls the audio and navigiation through the center stack LCD is worlds better now in the third iteration. The enlarged LCD display uses a touchscreen and fewer buttons this time around.

This is the first significant deployment of touchscreen technology by a German automaker. Previously, the unified mantra chanted across the board from Audi, BMW and Mercedes-Benz was (I’m paraphrasing here, but not by much): Focus groups in Germany find that fastidious Germans abhor fingerprints on LCD displays, so every buyer of German cars the world around gets LCD displays indirectly controlled by buttons and control wheels (e.g. iDrive). And that often spells complexity with a capital K.
In the Porsche 911, it helps that the cockpit is so compact you can easily reach out and touch the LCD display mounted a third of the way down the center stack. It’s so close, in fact, that Porsche has no audio or navigation controls on the steering wheel other than voice input. But when an LCD display is that far down to ease the strain on your shoulder, more eye travel over and down is required. On the matter of screen location for visibility, BMW-Mercedes-Audi are correct: higher is better. You can’t have it both ways.PDK: Porsche resurrects the double-clutch gearbox The technical marvel of the new 911 is the optional double-clutch gearbox, PDK, or Porsche Doppelkupplungsgetriebe. In the sales literature it’s Porsche Doppelkupplung for the sake of brevity. (See how much easier Porsche Doppelkupplung is to pronounce)? PDK is effectively a seven-speed manual transmission that engages and disengages the clutch without need for a driver clutch pedal. It shifts for itself or you can shift using the console shifter or steering wheel buttons. PDK replaces the five-speed automatic transmission (Tiptronic) and at 115 K (253 pounds), cuts from 40 Kg to 30 Kg the weight penalty versus the six-speed manual that soldiers on. With this double-clutch gearbox, there are two concentric clutches and two side-by-side shafts and gearsets. One shaft holds gears 1, 3, 5, 7 and reverse while the other holds 2, 4, and 6. (Why five gears on one and three on the other? Odd as it seems, it makes the transmission smaller, Porsche says.) When you start in first gear, second gear is already in position on shaft 2 and ready for instantaneous power delivery the moment clutch 2 engages, at which point shaft 1 takes first gear offline and readies third gear for the next upshift. It all happens quicker than you can read this: 0-60 mph comes up in 4.3 seconds with the PDK-equipped 385-hp Carrera S, or 4.1 seconds if you use Porsche’s launch control option: Rev the engine to 6,500 rpm, release the brake, and the car leaps forward with zero tire squeal.
I’ve driven double-clutch gearboxes from Audi, VW, BMW, and Mitsubishi. PDK is the best. BMW’s DCT isn’t bad, either. All are far better than the jerky single-clutch automated manual gearboxes from early in the decade such as BMW’s SMG.PDK plus PASM plus Sport Chrono for ultimate performance
With PDK plus Porsche Active Suspension Management (optional on the base Carrera) plus the Sport Chrono Plus package you get the very best performance possible from the car. Press the PASM Sport or Sport Plus buttons to get more aggressive shifts and firmer suspension settings; BMW’s Drivelogic controls for its double-clutch transmission and suspension on the new M3 are more complex. (BMW toned down the suspension/gearbox complexity with the Comfort/Normal/Sport button on the 2009 BMW 7 Series.) All are nearly as smooth as automatic transmissions. With PDK, there’s one deliberate smoothness exception, which I found helpful at the track. If you choose Sport Plus and keep your foot on the throttle, engine momentum builds for the tiny fraction of a second between gears and then applies itself as a kick in the back milliseconds after the shift is completed. It makes the 911 a bit faster and makes the car feel a whole lot faster.The 25-year gap: What took Porsche so long with PDK?
Porsche developed the modern double-clutch gearbox and put it on the Porsche 956 racecar in 1983. So why the gap of a quarter century until it arrived on a street car — after a half-dozen others beat Porsche to market? Porsche people nod and remark how that’s a good question. There’s no good answer, however. History suggests that, cool as PDK was, it was heavy and unreliable in longer races. A French engineer, Adolphe Kegresse, laid out the basic principles in the 1930s but couldn’t get it to work. It actually took Porsche a decade to make PDK race-ready and then three years past 1983 to win a race with a PDK car. Following that, Porsche’s attention drifted, then refocused early this decade with the advent of clunky, single-clutch automated mechanical gearboxes and then Audi’s groundbreaking S Tronic double-shift gearbox in 2004.
Audi gets about $1,500 for its S Tronic (nee DSG) gearbox sourced from BorgWarner, BMW gets $2,900 for its seven-speed M Double-clutch transmission (DCT) from Getrag, while Porsche’s PDK from ZF commands a $4,080 upcharge from the six-speed manual gearbox. But don’t forget the fuel savings: Porsche’s new six-cylinder engines with direct fuel injection boost horsepower by 6% and fuel economy by 6% over the predecessor engines. PDK bumps it up by another 1-2 mpg over the manual gearbox, to 19 mpg city (+1 mpg over the manual), 27 mpg (+2 mpg) highway, so if you drive 10,000 miles a year and pump $3.50 a gallon premium fuel, you’ll save $100 a year with PDK. (A fairer comparison might with the old automatic, or Tiptronic. There, PDK is only $600 more and economy is up by about 12%, meaning you wouldn’t need have a 40-year break-even period as you would compared to the six-speed.)Test drive I recently drove the new line of 2009 Porsche 911 Carreras and Carrera S’s on public highways, back roads, and at Miller Motorsports Park outside Salt Lake City (think racetrack only with 23 turns and cleaner bathrooms). The car exhibits three personas: civilized and quiet on the Interstate, supremely confident on twisty roads, and boisterously powerful and in control at the track. On back roads in the Sport and Sport Plus settings of cars fitted with Porsche active suspension management (PASM), the transmission shifted more quickly and the suspension dampers (shocks) tightened to adapt to hills and corners. On the highway, you’d shift into Sport mode only if you wanted to better count expansion joints or compress your spine. The six-speed manual was excellent, and PDK was better still.
At the track at high rpm, the same engine that whispered on I-80 was nearly deafening under full acceleration, with a satisfying thrust in the back with every upshift. The 911 is better than many of its drivers. As I exited one turn with too much speed and with race driver / instructor Hurley Haywood (a three-time LeMans winner) frowning at me from the passenger seat, the car went wide onto a grooved runoff area, stabilized itself (God bless microprocessors in the suspension), and, after lifting off the throttle, I steered back on track. In earlier Porsches, lifting off the gas might have led to an embarrassing spin because of the weight of the engine behind the rear wheels. Here, electronics saved my bacon once I backed off the throttle. In my defense, I had the proper speed for the turn I believed I was exiting, but not for the turn I really was in. On a flat, 4.5-mile track with 24 turns, it’s easy to forget where you are.
The cockpit is reasonably spacious for a sports car though storage bins are tiny. You’ll probably toss a day pack into the vestigial back seats for odds and ends. That’s what I did. A Stuttgart-based Porsche engineer riding with me on one leg of the trip stashed his bag in the trunk to keep the cockpit tidy. The world is getting smaller, but there still are differences among us.
The snug cockpit is another reason you need the costly electronics options such as built-in navigation: There’s just no place to stick a 12-volt plug-in iPod adapter or a windshield-mount navigation device without the car seeming claustrophobic. Fit and finish, as you might expect, are superb. There are even two cupholders that slide out from above the glovebox in a marvel of German engineering. If you’re going to break one, do it under warranty.Cockpit telematics, navigation, audio There are times when the song of the engine isn’t music enough. With the 2009 911, a new generation of Porsche engineers and designers show they understand that most of the time even a Porsche represents transportation from Point A to Point B (preferably via twisty back road C). The departed 2008 Porsche 911 offered navigation, Bose audio, XM satellite radio, and a CD player. End of story. Now for 2009, if you check every options box, which adds up to $8,025 (but who’s counting?) you get far more: improved navigation, Bluetooth, CD changer, and music player connectors. The Harman Becker navigation system works much better with the touchscreen interface than buttons. Where 33 buttons formerly surrounded a 5.8-inch display, now 18 flank the new 6.5-inch LCD. At $2,150, that’s the highest cost I’ve seen for a navigation system where the LCD display is already integrated into the base car, and that’s not counting $595 for voice input. In its cars where there’s already an LCD display, Mercedes-Benz, no stranger to lofty options prices, charges $1,000 less than Porsche for navigation.Connects to virtually all music players, memory keys
The smallish center console offers a three-way music adapter ($440):
— One jack for iPods-only with a digital, not just analog, connection to the car. Many automakers with iPod interfaces get only an analog audio feed; the automakers Apple really likes get to access to the preferred digital signal.
— A second, USB jack that works with memory keys, small hard drives, and many other music players.
— A line-in jack.
You can control music devices (iPod or USB-connected) from the PCM interface and from the voice input system. The single-disc or optional six-disc DVD changer reads audio, MP3 and WMA formats (no video). Although there’s a 40-GB hard disk for navigation data with room left over for music, Porsche doesn’t allow you to rip CDs to the hard disk because of potential legal concerns. What if, Porsche worries, you sell the car (but not back to the dealer, who could wipe the drive clean) and the new owner now is a music pirate and Porsche is a potential facilitator of music piracy in a country full of contentious lawyers. (Lawyers who might take their lawsuit billings and buy a new Porsche, but I digress.) This troubles Porsche more than, say, that its cars can break speed limits in second gear, with third, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh still in reserve. The latter is not a legal problem; rather, that’s a desirable part of the Porsche DNA.
Porsche also offers handsfree calling. One configuration lets you use a second SIM card (popular in Europe where you can have two cards with the same phone number). The other, more useful in the U.S., provides a Bluetooth link to your cell phone, with the ability to upload the address book and see the phonebook and call status on the LCD.The seats suck – literally
Among the options that can drive the cost of seats toward $7,500 are heating, $500, and cooling, $800. What’s different about Porsche’s ventilated (cooled) seats is that they draw (suck) air away from your body. It’s marginally more comfortable. If you’ve got a bad lower back, you can turn on both heating and cooling.If you have to ask the price …This is the 10th generation of the Porsche 911 and internally this is designated the 997. Theoretically, you could take delivery of a new Porsche 911 for $77,320, but more likely you’ll want options, and it’s possible to spend more than $125,000. ($8,150 ceramic composite brake rotors, anyone?) You can order up a half-dozen variations on seating and trim and surpass $6,500 (seating upgrades alone). For $500, you can have the exterior mirror attachment point finished painted exterior color, and for $180 you can have the model designation painted on the exterior lid. Special paint such as retro cream white runs $3,100. Bluetooth is $695, an iPod adapter runs $440, XM satellite radio is $750, and Bose high-end audio is $1,440.Porsche Club enthusiasts have long muttered about nosebleed prices for options and here it’s hard to say that any of the Bluetooth/audio/navigation options are superior in function, accuracy, or ease of use to that Ford Focus which, by the way, will have its own double-clutch gearbox next year in Europe. Porsche, or its customers, are paying the price for a long options list that’s amortized over thousands, not hundreds of thousands, of 911s sold each year. One solution might be to embed the most important options – Blueooth, iPod adapter, satellite radio — in the base car as standard equipment where the cost to Porsche and the customer might be halved. (Embedding the XM chipset in the factory radio costs only a few dollars; it can be left deactivated.)Should you buy?
The first Porsches with PDK are the 911 Carrera with a 345-hp six-cylinder engine ($76,490 base with shipping) and Carrera S with a 385-hp engine ($87,060). Cabriolet (convertible) versions are also available (add $10,600) and all-wheel-drive versions are expected. If I wanted the best Porsche experience in the $85,000 range, as opposed to $100,000-$120,000, I’d go for 345-hp 911 Carrera with PDK, Porsche Active Suspension Management ($1,910 or standard on the Carrera S) and the Sport Chrono Package Plus ($950) that enables launch control. That plus shipping totals $83,850 and you still can’t plug in an iPod or use a cellphone legally. For the best daily driving experience, too, add the navigation and voice modules, Bose premium audio, music (iPod) interface, and Bluetooth. That’s $89,130. If you still haven’t tapped out your credit line, you’ll opt for metallic paint ($710 metallic not the $3,140 Special Color Metallic), heated and cooled seats and heated steering wheel, wheel caps with painted crests (a popular option at $195), parking sonar, and a steerable feature for the already standard Bi-Xenon headlamps for a total $92,735.
But is a Porsche for you? If your mission in life is to meet the hottest women possible, you should consider a used Ferrari, which costs about the same as a new Porsche and will probably bestow upon you greater ephemeral rewards. That is my personal belief. One problem about Porsche’s cachet: To the uninitiated, a $50,000 Porsche Cayman that any Orange County junior exec can afford, if he lives in a crappy apartment, looks at first glance like a 911 that can reach $200,000. But if you want a sports car that can be a daily driver, racking up 10,000 miles a year (Ferrarista freak at exceeding 4,000 miles a year), Porsche is the way to go. Now with the 2009 model Porsche 911, you’ve got thoroughly up-to-date cockpit amenities plus that awesome engine and gearbox.Porsche 911 Carerra (2009)
Porche Cars North America, www.porsche.com/usaPrice: $77,410 – $120,000-plus (hardtop coupe)
EPA economy: 19 mpg city, 27 mpg highway (911 Carrera, PDK, premium fuel)Pros: PDK double-clutch gearbox and new engine deliver 4.3-second 0-60 times. Jerk-free shifts. Touchscreen display (unheard of in German cars). Slick iPod interface. More MPG with PDK than six-speed manual.Cons: Breathtaking options prices: Navigation, Bluetooth, and audio upgrades add $8,025. Scaredy-cat Porsche lawyers nixed MP3 recording to onboard hard disk. Modest storage pockets.Bottom line: The iconic sports car of the past five decades delivers a sensational automated manual transmission (PDK) and, finally, the Bluetooth, iPod-adapter, and navigation options expected from most automakers. None of the cockpit gadgetry undermines Porsche’s excellence on the highway and at the track. It just adds to the bottom line.